NOTE: FAITHWRITERS FORUM is for members of FaithWriters main site only and requires a separate registration below. Learn about FaithWriters membership options and all of our tools to help writers HERE. SUPPORT OUR MISSION to grow Christian writers and spread the gospel worldwide online HERE.

I'm a happy camper these days because my niece, her husband and 4 beautiful little girls are visiting from North Carolina. They are here on the husband's company dollar for six weeks! Hotel, and two rental cars paid by the job for it is a working trip for him. Stephanie and the girls get to go play. I take a day off here and there, weekends and some evenings I get to see them. They've been here two weeks now.

I will so miss them when they return home, but I don't want to go there yet. Enjoy them while I can!

Hi Guys...it's the lurking bubble! Not really...when I finally get around to getting on, I almost always post, but yesterday I did something wackey and lost my post AND it saved it to a draft and then I couldn't find it and one of my emails from my isp came up....? Go figure. Anyways....Jaybird....you are so right about thyroid cancer being very treatable. My friend had it and a few others I know. All had it removed and doing fine taking thyroidizine or something like that. Also, I went to your blog hoping to see a preview of your life....SO NOT BORING and of course I didn't find it because s you said...it's not done. BUT, you put a smile in my heart from the ruby slippers to the family holiday traditions. Also loved the explanation of the trees. I absolutely adore looking at weeping willows. They fill me with peace. Now, when is your surgery? I'll be on the band wagon of prayers too.

Leahins...YAY, YAY YAY about your new place...I'll be praying for you too as I know the exhaustion that comes ith moving not to mention work and all.

Barb....I'm doing a happy dance for you with Stephanie being there and will also lift you up in prayers when they has to go home.

Well...my roommate just had her 5th toe amputated due to a botched surgery many years ago and so mes been really, really busy and today I take another lady whois a double amputee to the vascular surgeon for an ultra sound check....AND tomorrow....my little guy who is legally blind is going to the eye Dr. Mes can't wait for the weekend to catch my breathe!

I made through my first day of work, and I made it the full day without any problem. Well, I mean, Ater waking up an hour later than I intended to, having to skip my morning PT exercises and forgetting which exit led to 270 N, thus getting on 270 S and having to turn around.... my day was just fine! lol The only time I thought about going home (other than the end of the day) was before I even got there.

That's great that your niece and her family are there for 6 weeks! I know how much you enjoy them. I'm glad that you get to have fun. where about in NC are they? Q is in Durham and we are going in May to see him then on to FL. It would be cool if you were visiting your niece and I could visit Q at the same time and end up seeing each other.

Hey, y'all. Jay, I hope everything goes really well with your surgery and you have a quick recovery. Allison, I'm glad you're finally getting back to regular life things. I laughed when you said forgetting about PT exercises. I should make sure to do mine tonight...it's been a few days.

I accidentally caught a baby on Saturday night. All of the sudden it was coming out and I only had one glove on and I had pressed the call bell and also had the family press the emergency light but no one was coming, and there was the baby, so I just had to do the stuff I knew I needed to do. Everything was fine and a few minutes later everyone came running in to help, and she didn't even tear, and the baby was healthy. And I was doused with the fluid so I had to go change into clean scrubs. When I had my review last week they said I was very good at "Justice" which is one of our core values. I'm glad that people see that in me. I feel like this week was a good week of caring for people and enabling them to have the birth they wanted. That feels good.

We finally got the keys but they only gave us one set, and I made a copy and the copies BARELY work in the doors. Plus they only gave us one gate opener and we have two cars so I was like, "How is this supposed to work, and WHEN are you getting us a second one?" and they were like, "You might need to pay for a second one," which is utterly ridiculous because they are renting out a 2-bedroom apartment with 2 parking spots. So we should be given 2 gate openers. I'm going to hound them tomorrow and Friday because we're moving in Saturday (and our lease was starting on Monday so they should have had it done by then) and we both need to be able to get in and out. And they whined that the last tenant lived by herself and only used one opener, and I am like, I don't care who rented it before us, we have 2 gated parking spots so thus we should be able to get in with 2 cars! I can tell it's going to be such a joy to work with our landlords. We're paying a good deal more than our old place, so we expect a bit more attention to detail. That's the only sad part about leaving; I really like our landlord. He's always accessible, responds quickly, and is totally easy-going. Now we have to deal with a company, and their office staff are halfway incompetent about one thing or another.

Anyways, it will be a really nice place when we finally move in, and it's seriously closer to everything. Sooooo worth dealing with all the mess. And I met our neighbors below us - well, the wife - she looks to be a little older than us, and fairly pleasant. Hopefully I won't bother them too much with my late hours.

Well, I should be packing. We're moving bit by bit so the furniture move on Saturday will be not as stressful of a move as the past several. I dislike moving, but it will be great once we're settled.

My cousin Cody died 2 days ago. He had the same disease I have- duchenne md. He was only 17. I never met him. I had him on FB, but I think we IM'ed once. Cody looked up to me. He told his mom, "If Jason can do it so can I!"

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13

"Why sweat the small stuff when it's really not a big stink" - my quote

Oh Jason I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how hard that would be to you. I'm sending you a huge hug. I edited a book recently by a mother who lost two sons to Sickle Cell and your post made me think of it. Maybe I can get you a copy. It's so hard to understand why some people are able to get through it and others like your cousin doesn't. I wish there was something I could do--well there is--I'm praying my friend and you inspire me to try harder and to do more things!

So the brother of one of my classmates lives in Watertown and the gun battle last night was pretty much in their yard. One bullet went through their living room and knocked the TV off of the wall and another hit their SUV. He and his wife and the dog were huddled together in their bathtub. I was actually really good friends with his brother in elementary school, and their dad was a pastor at a local church. CRAZY!

Glad your friend's brother is safe, Allison. I'm glad for all the people living there that the whole mess is over. The loss of life and limbs is terribly sad. I'll never understand why people think that violence solves anything.

Well, for better or worse we're moved in. For better, because our new place is WAY better than our old place (except for the key issue). For worse, because I'm REALLY sore all over from the move. I'm very tired, but I can't sleep even with pain meds and my muscle relaxer. That's after a 2.5 hour "nap" which was the only sleep I got Friday night, and moving stuff down and up stairs from 8am-7pm (in addition to packing, laundry, and dishes). I took a hot shower, and then we went to a local place for a late dinner, then we came back and took meds and Ryan only stayed up for one episode of Doctor Who. It still took me until about 1:30am to fall asleep and I had my hot pad on my back too, and then I was up at 4am. I finally got up an hour ago to eat a half sandwich and drink some tea. I can take some more Ibuprofen now, thankfully, and then maybe I'll fall asleep. I do have a massage and chiropractor scheduled for tomorrow, so that will help. There's a few things I do need to get which we left at the old place, but we can pick them up when we go to church tonight.

Not sure how long it will take to recover from this move. I know it was after the first 24 hours that I finally slept well after the last move - I think I get all revved up with adrenaline when we are moving, since I don't want to forget anything. The last move was rough because I worked the night before and got about an hour nap, then was up all day, then was up all the next day after a short and fitful sleep, packing the last of our stuff and loading up the cars, and we drove like 6-7 hours to our first stop. We drove from a Monday to a Thursday to get from Spokane to Los Angeles, stopping for 3 nights at various B&B's. Then we had to unload and thankfully we had helpers which made it fast and doable. Yesterday we had one friend help with the first load from 10-2, and another friend help from 4-5 to unload the second load - SOOOOO grateful for our friends. We also got professionals to move the couch and fridge. I was definitely willing to pay for someone else to deal with them, especially after Ryan threw out his back earlier this week and was nursing it a lot before the big day. We both wore back braces while carrying things to keep us from re-injuring. It's more my joints and muscles that hurt - my back's a little sore but not as much as my hips and knees.

I am feeling sleepy now so I'm going to take advantage of that and try to sleep some. It's probably going to be another somewhat long day just getting the last things we need over here. Thankfully I don't work until Monday night.

Thats kind of like when I helped my Aunt move some things out of her and her husband's beach house and we didn't get there and started working until 9pm, it was down just over the MD/VA line. Anyway so we started at 9pm and didn't finish until 5:30am and didn't go to bed until after 6am which at that point i'd been awake for 24 hours straight.

The funny part is she had asked me to help her because she knew she'd need the help and she's extremely OCD and knew that I would just go with the flow and not make fun of her or tease her because of her OCD.

Probably about 5 months later, which was after the car accident, she had sent a card home with my dad when he went to go help her with some things at her house across the bridge and it was a Get well soon card and inside she thanked me profusely for all my help moving at the beach house and that I even made it enjoyable. lol